Adv

Pablo Larrazábal (pictured by Getty Images) will take a three-stroke lead into the final round of the BMW International Open but will have to produce another flawless display to hold of an intimidating chasing pack that includes World Number Two Henrik Stenson, Race to Dubai leader Thomas Björn, Paul Casey, Robert Karlsson and Francesco Molinari.

Larrazábal, who won this event in 2011, carded a 67 at Gut Lärchenhof near Cologne to move to 17 under during a disruptive third round that included a lightning delay and that earlier in the day had seen remarkable rounds of nine under 63 and ten under 62 from Casey and Richard Green who moved to 13 and 14 under respectively.

With more inclement weather forecast for Sunday, tournament organisers have been forced to schedule the final round as a two-tee start at 07:00 in an effort to finish before forecasted storms hit Gut Lärchenhof.

Key Quotes

Pablo Larrazábal: I’m going shot by shot, you know, hole-by-hole and trying to make as many birdies as I can, and as little mistakes as I can. Today, you know, I hit a couple weird drives but they happened at the right times so I could keep my momentum going. There’s many, many hours to spend before teeing off tomorrow and a lot can happen but I feel good and we will see what happens tomorrow.

Henrik Stenson: This is as close a leaderboard as I’ve ever seen. There are so many guys shooting low numbers. Obviously the course is set up for a lot of birdies, but it’s going to be a day tomorrow where the lead can change hands more than once. So it’s good to move into contention a bit more. You’ve got to shoot low if you want to have anything to do with the trophy I think. We’ll just try and make a few good putts tomorrow and try to keep playing reasonably well. My back wasn’t feeling too great today, so I’m going to go and get some treatment from that now and hopefully that feels better tomorrow.

Talking Points

Pablo Larrazábal has yet to make a bogey this week at Gut Lärchenhof.

Larrazábal is not the only former BMW International champion in contention. The others are: Thomas Björn (2000 and 2002); Henrik Stenson (2006) and Robert Karlsson (2007).

With a scoring average of 4.340, Gut Lärchenhof’s par five 15th hole was the easiest hole on the course during the third round. The par four ninth, with an average of 4.155, was the toughest hole of the third round.

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Graham J Gordon, The Editor and Owner, GolfblogspotUK

The GolfblogspotUK website is owned and run by former Walker Cup player and European Tour card holder, Graham J Gordon, from Scotland, the Home of Golf.
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